Amazing Stories — page 60: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

sot - 58 AMAZING STORIES to the reservoir, followed by a crowd of idlers ; being one of that class, [ was with them. “There was no break in the pipe and no cause for the stoppage of the water ways found until the reservoir was reached. Here they found cause in plenty. The huge, artificial lake was dry and the creek that fed it was pouring into a great hole in the center of the basin, near the dam and, from the roar that issued forth, one could guess that the water was falling some distance. “Ordinarily, a hole may be stopped up. This was more than a hole; a continuous stream of water of considerable size failed to fill it. Evidently there was a cavern, or a number of caverns, underneath the surface with outlets, possibly sufficiently large to carry away any overflow. “There were two newspapers in Hampton. One backed up the ‘Boosters,’ while the other stood with the ‘Conservatives,’ and the reservoir incident fur- nished the rival papers with a plentiful supply of material for publication. “As might be guessed, the conservative organ was mean and caustic. Of course, nobody could have foreseen such a catastrophe—for it amounted to that. “The other paper tried to explain, and really did explain. The cause was entirely obvious. The creek, for at least that part of it that had passed over the spot where the hole now was, had flowed over the thin rock cover of an underground chamber, or chambers, of huge dimensions. In view of what occurred a year later, I believe there must have been at least two, or more. This thin plate, or cover, had been strong enough to support the weight of the stream, but it was constantly growing thinner and it was apparently not strong enough to bear the greater strain imposed upon it by the water in the reservoir. “The conservative paper admitted this but tried to convince its readers that the engineers should have known, from the formation of the rocks, that such an accident was liable to occur. “And so they went at it, hammer and tongs, until, like a bolt from the clear blue sky, came another phenomenal occurrence. This, I suppose, might have been anticipated, although I don’t see how. 66 aN MAN by the name of Wilson owned a large farm that abutted upon the creek. In fact, a part of the lake formed by the reservoir encroached upon Wilson’s property, and would have covered a large part of it, were it not for a retaining wall that had been built to keep the water back. This wall ran from a point near the upstream end of the reser- voir to within a hundred feet of the dam. The remaining space was filled by a sort of mound, rising some fifteen feet, or more, above the surface of the water at high level. This mound was very much like a turtle’s shell in shape, a hundred feet in length, about fifty feet wide at its base. I mention the mound at this point in the story, because it played an important part in a later incident, and I want you to remember the details. “One morning, while the principal topic of con- versation was still the reservoir cave-in, Wilson came into town, all het up! Winding up in the Mayor's office, he sprung a sensation upon that official by declaring that his farm had ‘sunk out of sight.’ This was, to be sure, a mean and unusual trick for a farm _ to play upon its owner and the Mayor was both as- _ tonished and sympathetic. Wilson didn’t want sym- pathy; he wanted damages, which put an entirely different light on the story. At first, the Mayor thought Wilson was crazy, but he soon changed his mind and, calling in the County Attorney, asked Wilson to tell the story in detail. “Wilson said he had been aroused from sleep by a strange noise, a sort of tearing sound mixed with a great roar and, upon getting up and going to his window, which faced-the reservoir, he had seen a great gush of water, spurting up through the hole in its bed, and that a few moments later there had been another tearing, crashing noise and all his best garden land had broken away from higher and less valuable land, and ‘dropped plum out of sight.’ “He was still standing, open mouthed, at the win- dow when there came another explosion, followed by a tearing noise and a great chasm appeared in the northern end of the depression into which his farm had sunk and through this came a rushing volume of water. By this time, Wilson said, he thought he’d ‘better put on some clothes and investigate.’ “Continuing, he said that, when he reached the side of the cave-in, he saw that it was rapidly being filled with water that came pouring into it through the rent in the upper end. He had watched until morning when, the water, having reached a point a few inches below the firm edge of his remaining land, had ceased to rise, and he concluded it had gone as high as it ever would. “At first he was mystified, but at last decided that his misfortune was due to the cave-in of the reser- voir, the water having washed the underpinning from beneath his property. Well, both the Mayor and the County Attorney agreed with him—forgetting in the excitement induced by the fantastic story, that Wilson was there to secure damages. “Of course the Mayor couldn’t do anything for Wilson, and the County Attorney, seeing no better way out of the tangle, advised the man to get a lawyer and bring suit. “The case didn’t come to trial—not then—for the city figured a way out of the trouble into which the cave-in had drawn it. “Analysis showed that the water in the newly formed lake was the same water the city had been getting from the reservoir and so an appraiser fixed a valuation upon the sunken property that satisfied Wilson, and, this settled, preparations were begun to connect up the lake with the pipe line. “But, the chain of unusual happenings was not yet atanend, The day before Wilson was to receive the money for his land, water began to flow through the hundreds of taps that had been left open since they ran dry. An investigation revealed the fact that the reservoir had begun to fill up again and, as soon as the news reached the County Attorney’s office, payment to Wilson was held up, pending such a time as might be needed to show whether or not the reservoir would fill and remain full, “When it became apparent that there was to be no more trouble with the water supply, the City called the deal off. Wilson then took his case into court and lost. He carried it up on an appeal, and lost again, the higher court sustaining the lower and jus- tifying itself in so doing by stating that what had occurred was ‘an act of God,’ for which the city was not liable. “During the trial, I became acquainted with Wil- son and, afterwards he invited me out to his place. I was glad to go with him dor his, invitation carried ais as = ae ~~ = ey